The Light of a Shooting Star
by Raining Haven
Summary: Mahiru saw herself as an unlucky girl. The humans around her thought otherwise, as did the demons who seek her. With the power of the moon at her grasp, will she be able to help the Lunar Race? My interpretation of the manga.
1. First Sight

**Disclaimer:** Crescent Moon and all of its characters, places, and basic story line do not belong to me, nor do I claim them. This is strictly a work of fiction based upon the manga, which belongs to those who created it.

* * *

  
_Rushed footsteps thumped harshly against the mats of the house, guards throwing open paper-thin doors as they frantically searched._

"Minister," the head of the men bowed before his master as they stood outside the destroyed home. "We… we've lost her."

The Minister of the Left's cold eyes stared down at the man who had failed to protect his daughter. Fury burned within him. He brought one of his armored feet back, then swung it forward harshly. The Minister's first guard grunted in pain as his master's foot jostled into his gut, causing him to fall backward. Blood forced its way up his throat, flooding his mouth with rusty liquid. His eyes met his masters as his vision began to shake and double.

"Master…" he coughed, choking on his own blood. It trickled out of his mouth and dripped from his chin, splattering onto his uniform. "Please forgive me," He begged. "Th-the beast," the man coughed again, this time blood shot from his lips as air tried to force it out of his throat.

Droplets spewed onto the Minister. His cold stare remained on his once trusted first guard. He knelt down, taking a fist full of the guard's uniform in his hand. He jerked the man close to his face. He started at the man for a moment before leaning forward so his lips were a fraction of an inch away from the guard's ear. The guard gulped as the Minister of the Left whispered one cold, threatening demand into his ear:

"Find them."

**. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .**

Mahiru shot up in bed. Cold sweat clung to her body. Her chest felt like an anvil had been sitting there not a second ago. Her breath came and left in sharp gasps. Shakily, she turned to look at her glowing digital clock at her bedside table. 5:59 AM. She slapped the alarm button before the piercing noise of the buzzer had the chance to sound. She lifted her hand to her head, running her fingers through her honey-blonde hair. Her head was pounding.

_That dream is going to kill me_, she thought as she pushed back her bedding. Dizzily, she got to her feet. Her school uniform was thrown on her desk's chair; she had been too tired to put it away the night before. She managed to scramble out of her pajamas and into the uniform before she began her hunt for her hair brush.

"Mahiru, sweetie?" a woman's voice called from the base of the stairs. "Are you up yet? I'm making oatmeal for breakfast."

"I'm up, Auntie!" Mahiru called as she threw her assortment of school books into her bag. She hurried out of her room, following the scent of breakfast awaiting her in the kitchen.

"Good morning," Mahiru's aunt smiled as she held a cup of freshly made tea to her lips. The woman was an early riser, she always had everything ready and waiting for Mahiru by the time she managed to force herself out of bed. "You're up early." She noted. "Did you sleep well?"

Mahiru forced a smile. "Yes," she lied. "I woke up just before my alarm went off." Mahiru never told her aunt about her haunting dreams, so whenever one plagued her, she would brush it off as to not worry her only family. She shuffled over to their small dinning table and parked herself in one of the two chairs. A bowl of the warm food already sat waiting for her. "This smells great," Mahiru smiled up at her aunt before she began to shovel the food down.

"Then take time to _taste _it," her aunt laughed.

"Can't." Mahiru swallowed hard. "I want to get to the bus stop early so I can get to school on time today."

"I'm sure you'll make it in plenty of time, Mahiru-Chan. Just enjoy your food."

But it was too late, for Mahiru had already finished the heaping bowl. "Record time," she grinned.

Her aunt rolled her eyes.

"Have a good day at work, Auntie!" Mahiru waved as she rushed to the front of their small home. She donned on her school shoes and clung to her bag as she made a dash for the bus stop a few blocks away.

"Alright," she dug into one of the pockets in the front of her bag. "Where did I put that bus fare…" She knew she had it, it was just a matter of _finding _it. At times organization was an issue for her. Especially when it came to remembering where she put her bus fare.

"Found it!" she cheered as the long city bus of Tokyo rolled in front of her. She handed over her money and stood next to a window in front, holding on to the handle hanging above her head. Sometimes the bus driver liked to make abrupt stops making everyone in the bus lose their balance. It was necessary to hold on to something. Mahiru had learned that the hard way. Just a week before she had hit her head on the window when the driver smashed down on the brakes as he realized he almost missed his next pickup stop.

Mahiru sighed happily as she watched the city whoosh past her from the window. For once, she'd actually make it to school in time. Maybe she'd get in the classroom early to get a sneak peak at the lesson plan, just in case a surprise test had been planed. The algebra teacher was notorious for doing that to his students. She had never been very good at math, so any warning for upcoming tests were always a big help to her.

Her gaze shifted to the front of the bus as new passengers began to board. She vaguely noticed the long line of colors ahead of the bus, not taking the time to register what they were. A few seconds went by before a sharp gasp erupted from her. She frantically looked down at her wristwatch. 6:39 AM.

"No…" she murmured, looking back up at what she now realized was an extremely long line of cars. "No, no, no!" she whimpered. _So much for getting to school on time! _she thought as she ignored the other passengers who turned their heads to look at the girl who was talking to herself. "Curse my rotten luck," she groaned as she gave up hope of being a good, non-tardy student.

Mahiru watched as a policeman walked around the side of the non-moving bus and tapped on the door adjacent to the driver. The driver pulled the lever next to his chair so the door could swing open. "G'monrnin, Sir. Is there a problem?" he asked, sweating a bit. He was praying this had nothing to do with running a red light a few blocks back.

The policeman stepped into the bus without glancing at the passengers. He hesitated, stepping forward so only the driver could hear what he was about to say. "Don't let anyone off for the next half hour," the dark haired policeman said to the driver of the bus.

The driver looked up at the man, wondering what could possibly be so important that he needed to delay his passengers more so then they already would be.

"There was a wolf spotted nearby," the policeman continued under his breath. "Ran right out into traffic--we think he might've escaped from the Tokyo Zoo. We haven't found it yet, but we're closing off the area until we drag the mutt back to the zoo. We can't risk civilian injury, since apparently this was one huge beast."

The driver looked horrified. "Y-yes sir," he mumbled. "No one gets off until y-you've caught it…"

The policeman nodded once then left. The driver was quick to seal the door tightly behind him. Other passengers whispered to each other, wondering what the holdup was. Mahiru looked around, wondering why no one was panicking. Had she been the only one who had heard about the escaped wolf? She peered out the windows, searching for the animal. Everything seemed normal as far as she could tell. The wind picked up, blowing old news paper along the sidewalks. From an ally not too far away, she thought she saw bats flying up into the strong winds. She closed her eyes and shook her head -- _bats don't come out in the morning, it's too light out_, she thought. By the time she opened her eyes, there were no signs of the creatures. The wind was dying down.

The minutes ticked by as the traffic slowly crept forward, frustrating the blonde girl to the point that she was sure she could get off and walk to school much faster than the snail pace they were traveling in the bus.

Finally the traffic began to thin out and she made it to school by the time first period was almost over.

"Hey, Duckie!" Junko called from her desk. Mahiru wearily smiled at her best friend. Junko pushed some of her long black hair behind her ear as she waved to her tardy friend from her desk. "What happened, girl? You're later than normal!"

Mahiru grimaced. "It's not my fault this time," she sighed. "My bus got caught in traffic, then some policeman came in and talked to the driver, telling him not to let us off the bus for a while." Mahiru decided to omit the part about the escaped wolf the driver had been warned about, and her possible bat sighting. Junko never really understood the weird things that always happened around her, so she tried to not mention them as much as possible to avoid the awkward looks she would receive.

"Poor girl!" Junko laughed. "It's okay, I copied my notes for you." she handed Mahiru a page of scribbles and doodles. Mahiru politely thanked the girl while making a mental note to copy someone else's notes just in case. Junko had been known to daydream in class and often left out the most important information in her notes.

Mahiru took her seat and tried to focus for the remainder of the day. Her dreams had been flooding her head, title waves over the wading pools of information class bringing her. She almost slipped and wrote her history paper on the scene from her dreams instead of the Samurai in the Meiji Area which was what she was assigned.

Eventually the school bell rang indicating the end of yet another tireless day. Mahiru gathered her things and dumped them into her bag. She felt sluggish after all of the lectures she got for being late that morning; the sick feeling stuck with her all through the day.

"Going to Swim Club?" Junko asked as they exited the class for the day. It was a silly question, she already knew the answer. Mahiru never missed Swim Club, even if she was on her death bed.

Mahiru nodded. "I need the break. It's been a long day."

Junko grinned. "Alrighty, let's go then."

Mahiru managed to smile back. Junko wasn't a part of the Swim Club, but she often waited for Mahiru as she did her laps. She wasn't sure if Junko was totally there for her support though, since the Swim Team was a great place to pick up gossip. It didn't really matter, Mahiru thought as she hurried off towards the gym's pool.

She needed a break from the real world that only the water could provide.

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, a brown haired boy with strange piercing and top of the line clothes was walking up and down the street seemingly sniffing the air.

"Don't be so obvious, Akira…" a smaller man told the brown haired boy. "Try to act casual. We don't want another mishap like this morning."

Akira sighed. "I think I lost the trail," he grumbled. "What should we do? Master Oboro told us to do our best to find the Princess today."

The smaller man looked up at the boy. He adjusted his glasses so they'd reflect the sun--there was less glair on his eyes that way. "We'll just have to keep looking, I suppose. Nozomu said he was going to try looking around the apartment buildings in the area and maybe the library. Mitsuru took off somewhere… we can't count on his help today."

The brown haired boy hung his head. Large wolf-like ears sprung out from under his hair. "Do you think he hates us, Misoka?"

"Put your ears away, Akira. We can't afford anyone seeing your transformation."

Akira obeyed as he continued to sulk. The young werewolf hated the idea that their new friend might very well hate them, even after Master Oboro had rescued him from a dark fate only a few months ago. They were searching for the princess in the adoption system at the time--they'd been to homeless shelters all over Japan. Humans with broken souls would stare at them as they passed. Akira always wondered if those people could see behind their human faces to what they truly were. Misoka told him not to worry about it, and Akira learned early on never to question the smaller man that he and Nozomu saw as the leader under Master Oboro.

They had spent a month in Kyoto alone picking through old records and trying to trace blood lines. For a while, they were afraid the Princess's bloodline had died out through the thousand years since she passed. The search almost seemed pointless, as Mitsuru had said once they filled him in. Some girl who might be related to a woman in a legend probably would've lost the power of the moon they'd been so desperate to find generations ago. The Moon Palace was about to give word to relinquish the search for the Princess right before they found Mitsuru.

_Tokyo's Juvenile Correction Center_, Akira remembered with a sigh. Master Oboro had Nozomu hack into every database he could find, looking for reports of children with strange abilities. Katsura had sensed a trail of the moon's energy one evening when she was walking home from doing the grocery shopping and informed Master Oboro right away. They all remembered that night well.

Nozomu set to work, searching through every file for every school he could find nearby. Being the skilled hacker that he was, sifting through the mess took him hours when it would've taken anyone else weeks.

"Look at this," Nozomu had told Mater Oboro as they both stared at the glowing screen of the blonde haired boy's laptop.

"A boy who can fly…" Mater Oboro mumbled.

They had found another member of the Lunar Race.

The only problem was, the boy had been passed through the foster care system so much he had left trails though nearly every one of the homes within a one hundred mile radius. Akira remembered how that made his insides twist. He couldn't imagine living his life with strangers, being passed around like a doll like that. He made it his personal mission to sniff out this person and rescue him.

Master Oboro had given Akira permission to search in addition to their search for the Princess. Eventually, they found a Tengu not much older than Akira locked away in the Correction Center--_Jail for Juveniles_, Akira remembered with a shiver.

The buzzing hum of his cell phone in his pocket shook the depressing thought from Akira's head. "Hey Nozomu!" He said cheerfully, doing his best to break from the glum mood he was just in. "Whatcha up to? Any luck?"

"Nah," The voice on the other end sighed. "She's defiantly not anywhere near the apartments. I wasn't thinking, I shoulda checked out the school before it let out for the day," the voices said gloomily. "I suppose I'll check the shopping districts before heading over to the library. We don't know if the Princess is a shopoholic or if she's a bookworm, so I might as well try and scope out both."

Misoka reached for the phone.

"Nozomu." He said once Akira handed it over.

"Yeah, Leader?" Nozomu perked up. Maybe they had some sort of news for him.

"We're going to check out the park then head your way. Meet you at the library in an hour?" he asked.

"That works," Nozomu agreed. He clicked off his phone and shoved it in the pocket of his jeans. The sun of the mid-afternoon was beating down hard on the young vampire. Not even his sunglasses were offering much assistance to block out the harmful rays. His father had the same problem--or _gift_, as others called it--sunlight was not something that would kill him unlike much of the rest of his kin, but it gave him an everlasting migraine. It was something he'd learned to deal with as a child, but it was on days like today when the frustration of something else added to his battle with the sun. He glanced at the clock on a nearby building. 5:30 PM. Only about another hour and a half before the sun went down. He'd survive.

Nozomu walked past the groups of school kids on his way to the shopping district. Some of the girls turned to stare at him as he passed. He'd heard excited giggles once they thought he was far enough away. Nozomu was used to this. Being blonde in the middle of Japan always brought attention; attention he'd grown to amuse himself with. It's not that he enjoyed being a heartbreaker, but it was the closest he could get to the normal folk around him. If he couldn't join them, he might as well look godly so they would gape at him. He grinned at the thought.

There seemed to be a lot of students lingering from Tokyo's Private Academy around--he'd recognized the uniforms well. He and Akira were going to infiltrate that school in the next few days to pose as students if their search for the Princess was not fruitful by then. He didn't love the idea--he wouldn't be able to wear his sunglasses in class--but he was willing to suffer through near-blindness if it would bring them another step closer.

As he walked, he noticed a group of girls hanging outside the local café. They'd seemed to be teasing one of the girls--a _blonde_ girl--about her luck. A truck had just drove past where they stood, splashing muddy water from the previous night's rain onto the girl's shoes. He was taken aback as he listened to their conversation, trying his hardest not to let a chuckle pass his lips.

"These are brand new shoes…" the blonde haired girl said sadly. "My aunt just bought them for me."

One of the other girls with short light brown hair held her hands up as to try and get the blonde girl to laugh it off. "Well, at least you didn't get mud on your uniform too," she said, still trying to lighten the mood. "I mean, that's good, right?"

Nozomu watched as the blonde girl turned and walked away from her friends. He smirked a little as the two girls who were left standing gossiped about where she'd ran off to.

_Women are so fickle,_ Nozomu thought to himself as he continued on his search.

**. . . . . . . . . .**

Mahiru walked along the cooling sidewalk. The summer air was starting to chill during the evening as fall approached. She watched her feet as thoughts enveloped her mind. One muddy shoe in front of the other. The breeze ruffled through her hair. She could smell the sea now. The cries of seagulls were swirling in the air around her. She breathed in heavily as she looked over her secret place. The docks--her home away from home.

She had always loved the water. As soon as she was old enough to notice the ghost-like fish swimming in the bathtub with her when she was no more than a few years old, water fascinated her. It was the secret she kept from the world. Through her eyes, water was a window into another time. A looking glass to another world. An escape from her unlucky life.

"_Please share your luck with me!" _the girls from school would say. They would pass her around like living a good luck charm. Not hours ago they were attacking her in the pool, trying to touch her and soak up what they believed would be luck. _What's up with that? _Mahiru asked herself as she looked down at her hands. _Who would _start_ a rumor so ridiculous?_

She was the most unlucky person she knew. Nothing ever went right for her, no matter how hard she tried. The last memory of her parents replayed in her mind. The car. Bright, warm sunlight. Clear blue skies. And the squeal of breaks locking.

Mahiru closed her eyes as she felt her memory take life. The metal frame of the car bending and smashing like it was aluminum. Her parents yelling from the front seat. Glass from the windshield breaking and flying all around her. Her sweaty palms covering her eyes as the car spun into a guardrail. Sounds of bones breaking. Her mother's final cry as she was thrown from the broken heap of metal.

The never found a legitimate reason for the crash.

An accident, the adults had told her as she clung to one of the beds her parents' dead body was laying on.

An unfortunate turn of events.

That wasn't the only thing that her luck effected. The little things seemed to happen so many times a day, she had grown to expect being nailed by bird droppings weekly. Outings she was looking forward to always got canceled. All the boys she'd ever had crushes on always had girlfriends. She always managed to trip over hairs on the floor, or fall up the stairs if she wasn't playing extra attention to what she was doing. Mud spraying on her when cars drove too closely to the sidewalk seemed to happen a lot lately, too.

Mahiru slowly opened her eyes and looked to the skies. She wouldn't be surprised at all if a bolt of lightning came crashing down from the heavens to electrocute her. That was just how her luck went.

To her surprise, it was not a bolt of lightning that was falling towards her, but a boy her own age who seemed to be caught in a cyclone of icy air. Some of the seagulls had gotten caught up in the wind and were thrashing against the boy as he fell to the earth.

Horrified, Mahiru took a step back as the boy crashed onto the cement a few feet away. _What is this? …Is …is he _dead_? _she asked herself while he was laying there. _Is my misfortune never going to end?_ she thought as his blood began to pool around him.

"A-Are you alright?" She managed to ask as she crouched down next to the body. She suddenly registered the sirens nearby.

The boy looked up, gritting his teeth and glaring at her with cold eyes. "Damn it," he mumbled, trying to push himself from the ground.

Mahiru gulped. _Those eyes! _her thoughts screamed in her head. _Those are the eyes of the demon in my dreams!_

She reached out for him, now seeing the Demon instead of the boy.

"Don't touch me!" The wounded teen hissed.

"But you're hurt!" Mahiru yelled back. She couldn't stand the sight of blood. She continued to reach out for him, but he shoved her hand away.

"Ow!" she cried. Electric shocks burned through her fingers from where he'd touched her. They numbed her skin and began to throb clear through to the bone. The boy fell backwards as he stared up at her with horror.

"Y-you…?" his shape began to quiver. The back of his shirt bulged, and he doubled over in what looked like great pain. "It just can't be…" he gripped his black-green hair between his hands as he tried to get the world to come back into focus. Angled stripes seemed to rip down his cheeks as his eyes went from brown to green to black.

The _thing _looked up at Mahiru then, reaching out for her. "But it is! It's _you!_"

Mahiru felt like the wind had been knocked out of her. "N-no!" she yelled. Grabbing her bag in her uninjured hand, she made a dash for the street around the corner. She crashed into a man who had been running her way--hopefully someone coming to her aid.

"Hey, slow down!" he said as he caught her from falling backward from the ricochet.

Mahiru looked up at the man as he tried to get her to stop shaking violently. It was the policeman she'd seen on her bus that morning, only in street clothes.

"Kusakabe," another policeman in street clothes whispered to the man who had caught her. "She's not wearing any shoes, sir…"

Mahiru's knees buckled. She dropped to the ground, sitting with her knees pulled to her chest as if she were trying to become so small she would be invisible. Tremors of fear still shook through her. The second man knelt down to look at the terrified school girl in the eye.

"We're looking for someone," he told her. "A kid about your age. Dark hair, white button up shirt, jeans. Have you seen him?"

Mahiru's voice had vanished. She pointed a shaking finger towards the docks. The undercover policemen looked towards the water as the men that followed--more police than Mahiru had ever seen--charged the area. One of them brought Mahiru's muddy shoes over to her.

"The area's clear," he told the undercover men as he handed the girl her shoes.

Mahiru searched the area with her eyes, still too afraid to move.

The demon was gone, leaving nothing but a pool of his blood behind.

* * *

**AN:**

That ends chapter one! **Thank you so much to anyone who reads this**! I'm so excited to work on this story, I'm going to do my best to make it one of my most vibrant works.

**This is actually going to be a novel-version of the manga.** It most likely won't follow the storyline perfectly (as you might've already guessed since I've already changed some things around), but it'll be close. I'll leave all the important stuff in there.

Since I'm lame, I'm going to post my play lists for each chapter. (what I was listening to while writing) I hope you guys will be able to relate the story to the songs. :P Here goes:

_Fear _(from the .Hack/SIGN soundtrack) - Mahiru's dream

_Was it a dream? _(30 Seconds to Mars) - Misoka / Akira / Nozomu searching for the Princess

_Sold Your Soul _(Yoko Kanno - Wolf's Rain soundtrack) - On the docks / Mahiru's memories

_Animal I have become _(Three Days Grace) - Mitsuru as realized Mahiru was the Princess

_It's The Fear _(Within Temptation) - Mahiru while she realizes Mitsuru is a demon

Sorry if you guys get confused by my picks. It's pretty much for my own amusement, but since music reflects on what I write, I thought it might be fun to include the tracks for this story.

Please, please forgive any spelling typing errors. I have trouble picking them up on my own, but I do try. I'll fix any I miss as soon as I notice them, I promise.

**Also, if you enjoyed this, please review -- knowing your guy's thoughts keeps me going! **

Thanks again to anyone who reads this! I'm really looking forward to writing more.

-RH


	2. The Lunar Race

**See chapter one for the disclaimer.**

**Play list:  
**  
_Through Glass _(Stone Sour) - Nozomu for Mahiru while in the library  
_  
Friends_ (Yoko Kanno - Wolf's Rain soundtrack) - Mahiru while reading the book Nozomu showed her  
_  
NIGHTMARE_ (Yu Yu Hakusho movie soundtrack) - Misoka digging through Mahiru's head and the problem in the park  
_  
Key of the Twilight_ (.Hack/SIGN soundtrack) - at the Moonshine, the declaration of the princess and the Lunar Race

* * *

"Duckie! Hey, Duckie, are you alright? We've been looking all over for you!" Junko called as she pushed her way past the policemen who were scattered around the docks.

"I-I…" Mahiru mumbled, still staring at the pool of crimson blood only a few yards away. She shook her head hard, trying to get the image of the demon boy out of her head.

"Duckie?" Junko finally got to her friend. She waved her hand in front of Mahiru's eyes trying to re-earth the space cadet.

"Mahiru, are you alright?" her other friend asked. She'd noticed Mahiru cradling her hand protectively to her chest.

"I'll survive," Mahiru answered when she finally came to. She looked down at her hand. It was raw and aching, almost like she had been burned. It hurt to even flex her fingers. She could feel her pulse beating in her fingertips.

"I think you should get that checked out, girl." her friend told her. "How'd you manage to get a burn like that anyway?"

"I'm not really sure," Mahiru answered honestly. She couldn't pull her eyes away from the raw flesh.

"C'mon," Junko pulled her up from the pavement by her elbow. "We can have that checked out in the infirmary. The meeting about the school trip starts in fifteen minutes, we gotta head back or we'll be late."

Mahiru blinked. "The meeting was today?" she asked. It had totally slipped her mind.

"Yeah. The teachers are going to go over the rules and stuff, you know, same as always."

Mahiru looked down at her hand. "C-can you tell the teachers that I won't be able to make it? I think I should get this looked at at the hospital. It's really starting to hurt..."

"Sure," her other friend nodded. "Do you want one of us to go with you? I can call your Aunt to pick you up if you want."

Mahiru held up her good hand. "N-no! Thanks, but don't trouble yourselves. I'll go and get it checked out myself. You guys better get going or you'll be late."

Wearily, the girls left Mahiru behind.

_I wish I didn't have to lie to them like that,_ Mahiru thought with a sigh. She checked her watch. 6:15 PM. _The library will be closing soon,_ she thought to herself as she scurried off towards the large building a few blocks away.

Dashing in through the front doors, Mahiru got quite a few looks from behind the desk. She made a mental note not to draw attention to herself like that again -- she was too afraid to ask for help, and the more attention she got, the more likely someone would try and help her just to get her out of there quicker.

She walked quickly to the computer in the back, thankful that no one was using it so she didn't have to try and figure out the card catalog. With her good hand she managed find her search choices. Leaving her book bag at one of the tables, she hurried off to find what she was looking for -- Every book the library had about the legends of demons and humans.

Unfortunately for her, the library had quite a few of them to offer her. She piled them up as best she could, wincing at the pain shooting in her hand when it was forced to hold the extra weight. The stack was well above her head, making Mahiru nervous as she watched the floor for signs of other people walking near her.

_I'm just being paranoid,_ she thought. _No one comes back to this section anyway. _

She turned the corner quickly, smashing into something along the way. Her books went flying to the floor, her hand started throbbing as it got hit by a few of the books on the way down. "Dangit!" she squealed, once again cradling her hand to her chest. "Why do things like this always happen to me?" She bent down to pick up her books when she noticed a pair of expensive looking sneakers only a foot or so away.

"Are you alright?" A blonde haired boy knelt down, helping Mahiru pick up the pile of books that scattered. "Got to pay attention to where you're going," he smiled.

_Badump…_ Mahiru could feel her heart going berserk in her chest. _Blonde hair? Blue eyes? _And_ a Kansai Dialect?_ she gasped inwardly. _A foreigner?!_

"What's the matter?" The boy asked when he noticed Mahiru gaping at him.

Her cheeks flushed a deep red as she looked away, mentally scolding herself for acting like a fan girl of a totally gorgeous pop star.

"N-nothing," she mumbled, scooping up the books he was holding out to her. "I'm so sorry… thank you for your help." She reached out, taking the books into her arms. Her fingers barely grazed the back of his hand, sending another kind of shocking tingle through her skin. _Great, _she thought, _now I'm getting electrocuted whenever I touch someone. I guess at least that didn't hurt as bad as when the demon touched me…_

She bowed slightly to the boy who was now staring down at her with huge eyes and scurried off towards the table where she'd left her schoolbag.

When she was out of sight, Nozomu lifted his hand to inspect the tingle he'd just gotten. His eyes widened as he fought his transformation that began right where that girl had touched him. Looking over his shoulder, he gazed at the girl.

_The descendent of the Princess? _he asked himself. He watched his hand go back to its human disguise.

From his pocket, he dug out his phone and hit the first number on speed dial. Impatiently, he waited for the other end to pick up.

"Misoka," He whispered when he heard the click of the phone coming to life on the other end. "I think I've found her. Meet me at the library as soon as you can." And with that, he clicked his phone off and turned around smiling. His make-girls-drool charm was turned on and going full blast as he strolled over to the table where the girl was sitting.

_Hey…_he thought once he got a better look at her. _Isn't that the girl I saw run off from her friends earlier? _He grinned, taking a seat at her table. "What're you researching?" He asked as the girl looked up sheepishly from the book her nose was stuck in.

"Oh!" she gasped, her face going red again. "You're--"

"Let's see," Nozomu murmured. "Oh, _The Demon and The Minister of the Left,_ huh? I should've known," he grinned as he started pawing through the books that cluttered the table.

"Excuse me?" The girl leaned forward, looking almost embarrassed.

"Nothing," Nozomu said innocently. "Just talking to myself." He pulled a tattered volume from the stack and handed it to the confused girl. "Here. This should be the best source for what you're looking up."

Mahiru took the book cautiously, fighting her urge to blush again. _Oh wow! _she thought as she leafed through it. _He's totally right--this is exactly what I needed._

"Thank you so much. Thank you again, I mean." Mahiru blinked, wondering why it'd take some foreigner only minutes to find a book she'd been looking for for what seemed like ages. "You seem to know a lot about this topic," she leaned forward, hugging the open book to her chest. "Are you a foreign exchange student?"

"Nope, nope." the boy winked, waving one hand in the air. He shifted his weight in the chair so she could get a better look at him. Mahiru gulped. This boy was wearing the top end designer clothes she'd see in Junko's fashion magazines -- the kind of clothes people from her school could only drool over.

"I look the part," Nozomu said as he discretely pointed to himself with his thumb. "But I'm definitely not foreign bred. I was born _here,_ actually." He turned again, leaning his weight onto the table so he could prop his elbows on the fake-wood surface. "Yes sirree, born and raised in Osaka!" He grinned again, making Mahiru stare up at him with wide eyes. "They call me Nozomu."

Mahiru was flabbergasted. She held her book to shield her face in case another blush decided to wash over her. She looked up over the top of the book with weary eyes. She'd never had so much male attention in her life--and _certainly_ not attention from a runaway pop star looking boy. She didn't know _how _to react. Her eyes shifted down, searching for something that'd free her from his piercing gaze. She almost gasped as she saw a picture of a small girl standing with a young demon boy.

_Oh my god! They're just like in my dreams!_ She scanned the page, thanking the gods for an easy to read explanation. She got lost in her thoughts as she read it, nearly completely forgetting the boy sitting not two feet away from her.

It had been said even though something seems like a dream, never sell your soul to the devil. Mahiru chewed on the end of her pencil as she glanced over the pages.

_The girl had promised to marry a demon she befriended as a child, then passed it off as a dream as she grew older… when she got to a marriageable age, it was decided that she would become the bride of the Emperor. Unfortunately, the night before she entered the imperial court, she was stolen away by the demon who she'd promised her hand to so many years before. Her father, The Minister of the Left, brought together an army of warriors and went to rescue his daughter. They managed to slay the beast that stole her and returned her home, despite her no longer being welcome in the imperial court of the Emperor. It was said she married the commander of the troops sent to rescue her and lived happily ever after._

Mahiru sighed. _This story and the folk song that plays in my dream seem to be connected, but they're not quite the same. _

Lost in her thoughts, she began to sing under her breath. "Princess, Princess, why do you cry?"

Nozomu closed his eyes as he listened. "In the forest painted by the setting sun, I made a promise to a demon boy," he sung along.

Mahiru shot up in her chair. No one she knew had heard of the song -- not even Junko or her aunt. She was so surprised he was able to finish the first verse that she didn't hear the warning over the loud speakers saying that the library would be closing shortly.

"Nozomu?!" she said, almost panicked. "You know that song?"

Nozomu looked lazily over his shoulder at the front desk were the ladies were piling up the last of the books checked back in onto carts for the night. "Woopsie, it's closing time." He got up, not making eye contact with her and headed for the door.

"Nozomu?!" Mahiru cried, stumbling over herself as she followed the boy to the main doors.

Nozomu turned on the balls of his heels to wave friendly at the girl.

_That's right, princess, follow me. I want Misoka to get a look at you._

"That's her?" A much smaller man with long dark green--almost black hair asked.

"No doubt about it," Nozomu said, still waving towards the girl. "So were's Akira, Misoka?"

"He's cleaning up the mess Mitsuru made." Misoka said, his eyes locked on Mahiru. He sighed. "She sure doesn't look the part." He didn't think the descendent of the princess would be blonde--almost as blonde as the vampire next to him. He'd pictured a much more classic look.

Nozomu gave his friend a weird look. "Do you really think she'd be walking around carrying a _sign_ or something, Misoka?"

Misoka shrugged. "So what's her name?"

Nozomu grinned. "Why don't you use some of that hypnosis of yours? Her reception is top notch." It was true-- the girl had sent jitters down his spine with just one touch.

Misoka turned to the girl, one hand in his pocket. She'd finally caught up to the vampire she was chasing, and was now staring at them both speciously.

"Alright then, miss," he said, his squinting eyes opening up a bit more than they normally would. "What is your name?"

Mahiru felt herself get dizzy. Everything around her got blurry, and before she knew it, her mouth was moving without her consent. "M-Mahiru Shiraishi." As soon as the words spilled from her lips, her hands flew up and covered her mouth. _Oh no!_ she panicked. _Why would I be telling total strangers something like that?_ She felt like she'd been hit by a bag of bricks. Her head spun as she tried to figure out what just happened.

"Mahiru, huh? That's a good name." Nozomu winked. He turned to follow the man who was already walking away. He motioned for Mahiru to follow. "Come, come. This way."

"Huh?!" Mahiru gasped. "W-where to?"

Nozomu stopped walking. He turned to look over his shoulder and smiled at the confused girl. "You want to learn more about that song, don't you? And all the other things you've wondered about?"

Mahiru stared at him intently.

"Things you _know_ separate you from everyone else?" He turned to face Misoka again to hide his grin from the girl. He knew he had her hooked now. "Follow me."

Hesitantly, she obeyed.

_How does he know all of this?_ she wondered, peering up at him through her bangs as she timidly followed the young men. Suddenly, she realized it was pitch black outside. _Oh no! _she flinched, feeling like a dork. _How could I let myself be so distracted that I wouldn't notice something like that?_

They were entering the park by the time realization hit her. She felt queasy. Something about this was giving her a bad feeling, like she should turn around and run screaming. Normal girls didn't follow guys around after dark like this. Normal, _good_ girls didn't talk to strangers, either. Somehow, Mahiru didn't feel like she should be afraid of the two ahead of her though. She'd felt like she'd known them somehow. Maybe even felt safe with them. But she _couldn't _shake the feeling that she was being watched. Followed. Perused.

"Descendent of the Princess," A cold, somewhat familiar voice broke from the darkness behind her. Mahiru spun on her heels to face whatever it was that was speaking. Her burned hand throbbed.

"It is not pain and suffering I wish for you." A dark figure stepped from the shadows.

Mahiru's eyes widened.

"…It's death."

Mahiru fell backward, scooting away from the demon she'd seen on the docks. He was bloody and bruised, stalking forward towards her with one clawed hand up and ready to pierce through her delicate skin. He sprung forward with lightning speed, grabbing hold of Mahiru around the neck and lifting her off the ground. Mahiru cried out, fear was pumping through her body with every drop of her blood. Her hand felt like it was on fire again, and her throat where the demon was touching her began to burn as well.

Sparks of lightning crashed down to the earth around them as the demon pulled harder on her esophagus, one of his clawed hands inching closer to the exposed part of her throat with every second that passed. His form was changing, Mahiru could feel his body shaking as he grew taller--his fingers longer.

"Damn it, Mitsuru!" the smaller man roared. He mumbled something, and the world went shaky again. The park seem to warp around where they stood. Mahiru could faintly make out the shape of the blonde haired boy charging for her attacker. She squeezed her eyes shut as she felt a set of sharp nails graze against her skin. Before they could do any significant damage, she felt herself being thrown to the ground once again.

Instead of hitting what she was sure would be a brain-injury causing blow to the cement, she crashed into what seemed to be a warm liquid pond instead. No injury came to her--it didn't even hurt like doing a belly flop into a pool would. She lay, unable to move, looking up at Nozomu holding off a huge beast with his bare hands.

_N-no…_ she panicked for the boy she'd just met. _Run away… he's a demon, can't you see? You'll be killed…_

Nozomu, however, did not look afraid as he tightened his death grip on the beast. Anger shone through his blue eyes, you could tell just how pissed off he was just by the way he was glaring at the monster in his grip.

"What're you trying to do, idiot!?" Nozomu growled.

"Let go!" the monster screamed. He sounded more like a child crying than a beast fit for murder. "There's no way I'll let you go through with this!"

"What if someone sees us, huh?" Nozomu hissed, his hold on the demon still strong.

"They won't," Misoka sighed. "I've created an invisible wall around us."

Nozomu threw the demon to the other side of the invisible wall Misoka spoke of and stood in front of where Mahiru lay motionless on the ground. He braced himself, ready to beat the crap out of his comrade if needed.

"Stop with this nonsense, Mitsuru," Nozomu said. It was a warning, not a request.

"Get out of my way, Nozomu!" The beast they had called Mitsuru yelled.

"It is our utmost priority to bring the descendent of the princess back safely," Misoka told the demon boy.

_The descent of the princess?_ Mahiru thought as her eyes drooped. _What in the world are they talking about?_

"Don't let temporary emotion get the best of you," Misoka continued.

Something in Mitsuru snapped as he heard that. "What I feel isn't temporary!" He roared. "I don't and _won't _ever trust a damn human!" He lunged for Mahiru before he even finished his proclamation.

Mahiru was numb, even though panic was flooding through her. _He's going to kill me…! _she thought, still unable to move. She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact.

Instead of feeling knife-like claws slice into her flesh, she felt a whoosh of air rush through her, and then the warmth of massive furry arms as something huge and dog like cling to her as it darted off into the night.

"It's all you, Akira!" She barely heard Nozomu's voice cheer as he seemed to disappear.

Mahiru looked up at the thing that held her. Tingles prickled at her skin. _A wolf… _she gulped. Her mind wandered back to that morning--the policeman warning the bus driver about a wolf wandering around Tokyo.

_If this thing escaped from the zoo,_ Mahiru thought, _then someone remind me to never visit one again!_

Before she knew it, the wolf had dashed down a flight of stairs -- on two feet, Mahiru realized -- and into a building in the heart of Tokyo.

"Welcome home," she heard a man's voice come from the other side of the room she'd been carried into. She then felt the padding of a large lounge couch under her as she was dropped onto it.

"What is this place?" She mumbled as she sat herself upright. She pressed the palm of her hand to her forehead to try and get the world to stop spinning. She didn't along with motion sickness well.

"Are you alright?" A boyish voice asked. She looked up to see a tall teen in house clothes looking down at her with concern. "Did I go too fast for you?"

Mahiru sunk down into the couch cushions as he handed her a plate of fruit. "I cut an apple for you. It's yummy!" He grinned at her with a big, dog-like toothy smile. Mahiru suddenly felt dizzy again.

"Oh good, you're back," The man who spoke up earlier said as the front door opened. Mahiru looked over at the man and gulped. He looked like he couldn't be much older that thirty, forty tops. He had a distinguished look about him, his blonde hair going gray in some areas and combed back. He looked like an ambassador to a foreign country, Mahiru thought idly. Her eyes briefly studied the woman who sat behind the piano--a woman who looked like she could be a super model.

"Let go of me, you bastard!" A chill went down Mahiru's spine. The demon was back, only a few feet in front of her. Nozomu stole a peek at the frightened girl, grinning at her when she met his gaze.

Mahiru fidgeted in her seat. It was like Nozomu was trying to tell her there was no need to be afraid. It was soothing at the very least. He didn't seem worried when the demon-boy broke from his hold to go sulk on a stool in the corner of the room.

From the corner of her eye, she watched the demon stomp past her. Her attention was then caught by the guys of the room coming to stand before her.

"Kneel," the eldest of the men commanded. Each of them got down on one knee in front of her, bowing their heads in respect.

"What are you doing?" Mahiru asked. She couldn't understand why anyone would treat her like she was royalty--to kneel before her like that.

"We implore you, oh descendant of the princess," the eldest man said in a deep voice. He looked up at her as he continued. "Illuminate our path with the light of the power you hold. Bestow us with your power of the moon."

"We are those who worship the moon and gather in the night," the boy with brown hair told her. "Those whose very lives are ruled by the age of the moon."

"We are not human," Nozomu said, lifting a clawed hand up in front of his face. "We stand apart from the rest. We have both fought with and loved the Human Race in the past."

The smaller man then looked up at her to continue the speech. "The names that are placed on us by Humankind have no meaning to us," he said, almost coldly.

The demon in the back of the room then got up and stomped over to where the others were and glared down at Mahiru. Fury and annoyance burned in his eyes. "We are born with Blood from the Moon and we face the extinction of our people," he hissed as if it were Mahiru's fault alone.

"We are the **Lunar Race!**"

* * *

**AN:  
**  
That's the end of chapter two! This is dedicated to **moonsnite**, who is currently the only known reader and reviewer for this story. I hope you enjoyed it, heh! I betcha didn't think I'd get this chapter all done so quick. I told you I was motivated.

Anyway! As always, please forgive any errors, I really do try to catch them all. I'll fix them as soon as I notice them.

And for those ghost readers out there who are too sheepish to review, I'm encouraging you to let me know you're out there! But mostly I just want to say thank you to anyone who reads this. You guys are awesome.

-RH


	3. Princess, Princess

**Please see Chapter One for the Disclaimer.**

**Play list:**

_For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic _(Paramore) - Nozomu / Akira / Misoka / Oboro for Mahiru during her freak out.  
_  
Iris_ (Goo Goo Dolls) - Nozomu / Akira / Misoka for Mahiru on the roof outside her room  
_  
I'm with you _(Avril Lavigne) - Mahiru in the park as she talks to the guys

* * *

  
_  
T-They're not human…_ Mahiru's mind hand gone numb. Her body felt heavy. The hopeful eyes of the men at her feet shined up at her. Her throat closed as a cold sweat began to wash over her body.

"So what I saw earlier…" she thought about seeing Mitsuru changing from a human to a demon, the ripples of fear hitting her just as fresh as they fist had. "…It wasn't my imagination?" There was no doubt that she was talking to herself, reasoning with the last bit of logic she could muster.

She got up despite her shaky knees protesting. The eyes of the Lunar Race were locked on her. She was silently thankful she'd forgotten her lunch at home this morning; it surely would've forced itself up from sheer nerves.

She turned quickly, dodging for the door. She nearly tripped over her own feet as she pulled the heavy front door to the restaurant open. _I've got to get home_, she reasoned with herself. _This is a bad dream, a very, _very_ bad dream. My alarm will be going off at any second. I have to wake up. _

Frantic, she looked over her shoulder to make sure she wasn't being pursued.

"Mahiru!" she heard Nozomu call out to her as she ran up the stairs to the blackened street.

Hugging her bag to her chest, she dashed down the street without paying attention to where she was going. She didn't care what direction it was, so long as it was away from that ludicrous place. People she passed turned to stare or dodge out of her way. She was running blindly--she could _see _the people, but she couldn't maneuver her feet to avoid them as she past. She almost crashed into a business man who didn't see her quickly. It took her a good fifteen minutes of running hard and fast before she realized she was going in the opposite direction of her home.

Mahiru slowed to a quick walk as she darted into the doors of a corner store. She searched the crowed of late night walkers for any sign of the creatures she escaped from. Her eyes couldn't focus. The people passing seemed to bend and mesh together, flowing and turning around her like a sea of people acting as a protective wall. Far off in the distance she could hear thunder crackle and boom down to the earth. Mahiru gulped, wondering if that was natural thunder or the thunder called to the earth by the demon boy who had threatened her life.

Her feet began moving again before she knew it. First it was just a quick walk, but as the sea of people began to thin out once she hit the residential area, she broke into a hard run again. Her house was less than a mile away now. She could make it there in no time as long as she kept moving. Paranoia swept over her, she kept fighting the urge to glance over her shoulder in case a large wolf was following her to sweep her off her feet and carry her back to the demonic shop again.

_Wait a second…_ Mahiru thought as she rounded a corner. _Sweep me off my feet? They kidnapped me!_

A small voice in the back of her mind spoke up.

_They didn't hurt me._

Mahiru gasped as that voice betrayed the only bit of logic she had left. __

They didn't hurt _me?_ Her sense of reason cried. _That boy was trying to _KILL _me!_

_But the others protected you from him…_ the small voice reasoned.

_That's only because if they killed and ate me right there in the middle of the park they'd be found out, so they _kidnapped_ me and brought me to that weird shop so they could get their bloodlust over without disturbance!_

The small voice sighed. It was starting to become more clear, louder. _They were asking you for help, not trying to eat you._

Mahiru panted as her house came into view.

_"We implore you, oh descendant of the princess," _the eldest of the men had said as they knelt before her. _"Illuminate our path with the light of the power you hold. Bestow us with your power of the moon."_

Mahiru burst through the front door of her home open and took no notice of her aunt in her office on the phone as she past. She ran up the stairs and dashed inside her room, slamming the door behind her. She threw her school bag on the floor and pressed her wait against the door to her back. Slowly she slid down as her chest began to gasp for air between her sobs.

_Why is this happening to me? _she questioned herself. Her breath came and left in violent rasps as tears slipped down her cheeks.

Through the darkness she stumbled to her bed, feeling like if she stayed on the floor her body might break into thousands of tiny pieces. She felt for her pillow and cradled it to her chest, trying to calm herself as she curled into a ball on top her covers. Finally her breath steadied as she began to control her tears.

She could hear the soft pats of her Aunt's feet as they came up the stairs. Mahiru pushed her tears away with her fingertips as she heard her door being opened gently.

"Is something wrong, Mahiru?" her Aunt asked. The light from the hall came flooding into her pitch black room and stung the weary girl's watery eyes. "You're getting home so late… my goodness, you haven't even turned the light on yet?"

Mahiru sniffled a little into her pillow before sitting up. She would put on a brave face for her Aunt if nothing else.

"Nothing's wrong," she managed to say without her voice cracking. "It just got really late, and I was scared being out in the dark so I ran all the way home."

Her Aunt gave her a suspicious look but let it pass. "Do you want dinner, then?"

"No, thanks." The thought of food made Mahiru feel sick again.

"You were sleeping, weren't you? Her Aunt asked. "I'm sorry to wake you. Goodnight, Mahiru." She shut the door without another word. Mahiru sat in the dark, staring at where her Aunt was just sitting. She felt like she could break again at any second, but she willed her self to ignore the urge to cry and scream and throw things.

She closed her eyes and focused on the silence of the room to clear her mind. Her hand no longer felt like it was on fire, but it did hurt badly enough that she thought she might have to go against her better judgment and cut Swim Club the next day so she could get it looked at. That made her stomach churn--missing Swim Club would be hellish.

With a sigh, she laid back down against her pillow. The folk song from her dreams began to play in her mind as she closed her eyes.

_Princess, Princess, why do you cry?_

In a forest painted by the setting sun, I made a promise to a demon boy…

She could see the princess walking outside of her home. Her hair was as black as night, long and silky flowing down to what seemed like her ankles. It was hard to tell, since it looked to be night time in the vision.

_Princess, Princess, why are you scared?_

She watched the princess stare up at the full moon.

_In the far-off reaches of the highest mountains, I hear the cries of a demon boy._

_Who _are _you? _Mahiru asked the dream princess. _Are you the Minister of the Left's daughter?_

The dream princess smiled as the vision began to warp. The image of the beautiful woman had shifted to a group of ladies sitting by an open door leading to a well kept yard. Mahiru gasped as she recognized the women from her dream like state.

_Grandmother? Momma? _her heart began to ache again. _Oh my god, that's me… I remember this…_ _I was in kindergarten then. We were visiting grandmother in her house in Kyoto…_

The women were singing the folk song as her younger self smiled up at them. Mahiru's chest burned as she watched her deceased family taking a seemingly cursed song and turning it into something special, something magical even.

Mahiru opened her eyes as the vision slipped away. _I learned the song from my grandmother? _She couldn't figure out why it'd slipped her mind.

Mahiru's eyes widened as she realized the song was still flowing gently through her room even though the vision had ended. "Someone's singing?" she asked herself, pushing limp body off her bed to look out the window. Her eyes widened as she saw three beautiful boys sitting on the rooftop outside her room bathed in moonlight. Animals were around them, seemingly comfortable with the demonic young men. They were singing the song. _Her _song.

"I knew you'd wake up if we did that," Nozomu winked as Mahiru hesitantly pushed her window open. She couldn't help it--the beauty of their voices called to her like their song was just as important to her survival as air was to her body.

"Wow!" Akira shot up, his puppy-dog like eyes shinning in the moonlight. "The princess really is quick, isn't she?" he blinked, studying the girl's appearance. "Huh? You're still in your school uniform?"

Mahiru's cheeks flushed as she fought the urge to sink down under the window and pretend the godly looking demon boys weren't only a few feet away. "Just so you know, I haven't decided anything yet, okay?!" she blurted out without realizing it. Only moments before, deciding hadn't even been an issue--she thought her mind was already made up. The song must've caused her to at least consider their plea.

"We know, we know," Nozomu waved one hand as if saying 'no big deal'. "We're not here to force you to do anything."

"But we _are_ here to ask you again very nicely," Akira grinned as he folded his arms behind his head.

_If it weren't for all those piercing, it would be easy to mistake him for a child, _Mahiru thought. She noticed Misoka turning to look at the surroundings as Nozomu continued.

"We're also here to fill you in on some things." His charming looks were going full blast again.

Mahiru gulped. "Um…" she was flabbergasted again. It was hard to tell a vampire who looked like a god to go away. "Alright, but could you hurry off the roof, please? What if someone sees you up there?" The panic was clear in her voice.

"Just what I was thinking," Misoka said, turning to look at the girl. "We will be waiting outside, please join us once you change so we can talk."

Mahiru watched as the boys one by one hopped off the roof like they were merely jumping down from a step.

She shut her window--and then her blinds just in case they could still see--and pulled her uniform off and threw it on her desk's chair again. She scrambled into regular clothes quickly, unsure if she was now anxious to get this meeting over with or possibly a bit excited to hear what they had to say. Any fear she'd had had been washed away as they sung to her--but her nerves remained.

"Auntie, I remembered I need to get some markers for a school project tomorrow," Mahiru called down the hall towards the family room where her aunt was watching TV. "I'm going to the corner store to pick some up so I won't be late tomorrow. I'll be back soon, alright?"

"Be careful," Her aunt called back, sounding worried for the still shaken girl.

Mahiru slipped on her shoes and shuffled out the front door.

"This way, this way," Nozomu put his arm around her shoulders and guided her with the others to the park a block away from her house. Mahiru knew it well--she'd spent a good part of her childhood hanging from the monkey bars and flying in the swings at the tiny park.

Nozomu led her to the old wooden swings and motioned for her to sit. She was grateful that none of them knelt before her again this time. Akira parked himself in the gravel a few feet away. Nozomu took the swing to the left of where she sat. Misoka stood in front of her, staring down at her injured hand.

"May I?" He held out his hand to inspect her damaged skin. Mahiru hesitantly placed her still hurting hand palm up inside his own. He frowned. "I'm sorry about this, Princess," he murmured while pulling out bandages from his pocket. "Mitsuru doesn't know what he's doing until he's done it."

Mahiru winced as the short young man cleaned off the wound with some sort of antiseptic. "An electrical burn," he sighed as he wrapped her fingers carefully in the silky bandage. Mahiru could hear Nozomu grunt from where he sat. Akira didn't even try to hide his puppy like whimper.

"It'll be alright in a few days. I used a special medicine on it that'll make it heal up quickly." He released her hand. Mahiru could feel a warm tingle under the bandage where he'd touched her.

"Th-thank you, um…"

"Misoka."

"Thank you, Misoka," Mahiru dipped her head in a bow, not bending too far that she'd fall from the swing.

"I'm Akira," the doggie boy sitting in the gravel beamed over at Mahiru.

"It's nice to meet you, Akira," Mahiru smiled somewhat sheepishly back. It was hard not to smile when he did.

"Down to business?" Nozomu asked, grinning over at his friends.

Misoka nodded, placing his hands in his pockets. He stared at Mahiru through his glasses. "Well, princess," he began, "Our people are called the Lunar Race, and just as the name implies, we are a race whose lives are completely governed by the waning and waxing of the moon."

_The moon? _Mahiru thought.

"During a full moon everything's dandy, but during a new moon, it's just the opposite," Misoka continued. "Because of that, we've previously centered all our jobs around a full moon. But it seems the humans have discovered our pattern, so we're unable to perform as we once did."

Nozomu, who had been staring at the moon through Misoka's speech, tore his eyes away from the silvery light to gaze at the girl next to him. "Which is why we need your help, Mahiru." He didn't seem to be using his charm at the moment--he didn't need to. Mahiru stared up at him as he continued. "As the descendent of the Princess, Mahiru, you have the power to extract the full-moon's condition for us at any time."

Nozomu got up from his swing to get closer to Mahiru. His vampire charm was overflowing again. "So here's our dilemma," he said, his seemingly pained face only inches from her own. Mahiru leaned back on her swing, her face going red again. "We're going after these very important pieces for us--they're called The Teardrops of the Moon."

Mahiru nodded, still trying to lean far enough away to break his piercing gaze. "Our best chance for obtaining one just happens to fall on a new moon. We're in quite the bind, you see…" a small smile spread on his lips as he continued. "Unless you decide to help us out of course, Mahiru. Then it would be a snap."

Mahiru's mind flashed back to her day at school, the girls on the swim team nearly drowning her before the swim meet trying to soak up good luck. Her stomach squeezed as she thought about what a _demon _might do to her for that so-called luck they were after. "I… I…" she couldn't find the words. It scared her to even think about it.

Misoka and Akira peered curiously at the girl as she remained tongue tied.

"…I feel as if whenever I give my luck to someone else," Mahiru said, her voice shaky and quiet, "Then it takes away from my own."

Nozomu gazed down at her with wide eyes.

"If giving my luck to _humans _does that to me," Mahiru couldn't say that without sounding weird--like talking about humans and demons could even be _normal_ anyway, there was no point in trying to make it sound like an every day conversation, "Then giving my luck to monsters and creatures like yourselves…" she hugged the chains of the swing to her body as she decided how to continue. "…I… I don't know _what _will happen to me."

She shot Nozomu a panicked glance as her feelings boiled up from inside of her. "Wh-what…. What if I _d-d-die_ from it or something?!"

Much to her surprise, the demonic boys around her threw their heads back and laughed.

She looked around all panicked-like trying to figure out what she missed. The giggles and cackles over how funny she was didn't make sense to her.

"I-I don't get it…" she mumbled as Nozomu grinned down at her with his cheeks red from laughing so hard.

Suddenly, Misoka quit chuckling and turned his head towards the bushes behind them. "Akira," he said in a commanding tone. "In the bushes over there."

Akira's face went serious as he shot up to his feet and much to Mahiru's amazement, did a back flip into the bushes a few feet away.

"Gyaaa!" A boyish voice cried as the wind was knocked out of him.

"Awww, Mitsuru!" Akira laughed as he sat on his friend, large wolf-ears popping out from his hair. "Don't you _ever_ quit?"

Mitsuru looked up from where he was pinned to the grass. "Let me go!"

Mahiru gulped as she looked at the boy on the ground. _Mitsuru…_

Nozomu rolled his eyes, then bent down so his lips were only an inch from Mahiru's ear. "We act on the evening of the new moon at 6 PM. We'll wait for you at the Takeshiha Pier…" his voice got serious as he continued. "We lose all our luck during the new moon, Mahiru, so we really, _really_ hope you join us there."

He turned to look at her, his serious tone now replaced with a devilish smile. "Okay? Kiss."

His lips gently grazed her cheek, causing her to turn a million shades of red. That was the closest a boy had ever been to her. She was afraid her heart would pound clear through her rib cage at any given second.

"Ha ha ha!" Akira cackled as he continued to squish Mitsuru to the ground. "Don't fall for that Nozomu, even if he _is_ a total smoothie bomb." Akira grinned mockingly at the vampire. "Sure, he's all sweet and nice but deep down he's still a _vampire_."

"Shuddup, dork!" Nozomu blushed. "You're just _jealous_."

Akira rolled his eyes and got off Mitsuru. Holding him firm in a death grip, he swung the boy belly up over his shoulder, with ease.

Nozomu turned to pat Mahiru on the head, forgetting about the other's eyes on him. "Don't listen to him, okay?" he said sweetly. "I'd never, _ever_ bite the descendent of the princess." he told her sincerely. He then clapped his hands together and grinned hugely in a playful way, making Mahiru sweat a bit. "Well, that is," his voice was hopeful now, "I wouldn't unless you _wanted_ me to, of course. That would be a totally different story!"

That tone made Mahiru dizzy as she wondered if he was done acting like a fool.

From Akira's shoulder, Mitsuru hollered profanities and threats trying to bully the young werewolf into letting him down. Akira paid no mind, only squeezing harder on the boy, nearly cracking his bones under the firm grip.

"It's time for us to take our leave," Misoka said, bowing to Mahiru.

Mahiru watched as the demons slipped into the shadows.

_That was completely different from the demons in my dreams… _she thought as she hurried back home.

It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**AN:  
**  
That concludes chapter three. This one is for **Winged Shadow **and **moonsnite** who are the only current readers and reviewers of this story. I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!

Please overlook the errors. I'm currently writing this at 2:20 AM, and tired eyes tend to overlook things. I've done my best to pick them up, but I'm sure I've missed a few. I'll fix them as soon as I notice them.

If you're reading this, please let me know! I'd love to hear from you. You guys are an important part to keeping this going, so I hope you'll continue to read and let me know you're sticking with me.

I'm off to get some sleep. Goodnight!

-RH


	4. Pursued

**Please see chapter One for the disclaimer.**

No play list for this chapter since I lost my planning play list for writing this. Sorry to anyone who actually paid attention to it though.

* * *

Mahiru rolled over in her bed as her alarm clock began its morning blast of sharp ear-bleeding beeps.

Her dreams were calm for the first time in what felt like ages. No blood, no monsters, no cries of princesses or howls of demons. Nothing scary at all. Just the cool waves of the ocean as it turned calmly in the moonlight, the schools silvery fish swimming near her; the tiny creatures swimming around her as if she were meant to be in the ocean just as much as they were. She felt at home. At peace. Happy. Warm.

…Until the alarm went off.

By the time her hazy mind shook the last of the dream water from her brain, it was almost 6:45. Throwing back her blankets, Mahiru scrambled out of bed and nearly ripped the buttons from her nightshirt as she struggled out of her pajamas and into her school uniform. She yanked her brush through her hair with one hand while trying to pack her bag with the other -- a task that she had learned to master with her ever-late status at school.

Finally she tore down the stairs and straight out of the house, book bag in hand, bed head tamed.

"Mahiru?" her aunt called from the kitchen, gazing at the wide open front door with surprise. She knew her niece could be a scatter brain at times, but leaving doors open and running out as if the house were engulfed in flames was pushing it.

"Sorry Auntie, I'm really late!" Mahiru called as she continued running.

Mahiru's aunt sighed as she watched her teenage almost-daughter run down the street, heading directly for her bus stop. The knot in her stomach twisted. Mahiru had always been independent, but in the past few days, she seemed… different. Almost as if something had changed inside the girl she'd known since she was no more than a tiny child weeping at her deceased parent's bedsides. Change was never something she was good at dealing with, which is why she was eternally grateful that Mahiru never hit a rebellious time in her youth.

_A rebellious age? _She bit her lip as she closed the front door. _Isn't that normal for teens…?_ But Mahiru was different. Mature. Always the adult, never the child. _So why now? _she wondered. Why would Mahiru's behavior change now, so suddenly?

She had read all the parenting books, all the books on puberty and mood swings and how to parent a child who was… well, a child. Or a teen. Or a borderline adult. But Mahiru was none of these things… she was herself, always and forever.

The knot in her belly twisted, her almost-mother's intuition sending her signals she didn't know how to read.

There was something wrong. She knew it. Of all the years of carefully watching her niece grow up, never once had she acted so distant; running out on her even when late, never going to bed without dinner, never leaving in the middle of the night to get "school supplies."

_Is it possible for her to change so quickly? _she wondered, her back pressed firmly against the front door.

**. . . . . . . . . .**

Mahiru ran harder and faster than she normally would have to catch the bus. She'd seen it from a block away, the last of the passengers climbing on board without her. She shoved her way through the mass of people on the sidewalk, plowing though the gossiping schoolgirls and businessmen chatting away on their cell phones until she made it to the already-closed bus door.

"No!" She cried, balling her fist up and slamming it against the door to try and get the driver's attention. "I'm only a minute late. You haven't even pulled away from the curb yet!"

The bus driver waved his chubby hand at Mahiru through the dirty window. "Sorry kiddo, maybe next time." he called to her while shifting the mass transportation bus into gear.

Mahiru's eyes went wide as she watched it pull away without her. "Sorry my butt," she grumbled with an annoyed kick at the innocent sidewalk. "Of all the rotten luck."

She peeked at her wristwatch. 6:52. She had exactly eighteen minutes to hightail it to school before she got detention for a week's worth of tardy marks on her attendance record in a row. "Should've joined the track team," she mumbled to herself as she took off down the sidewalk.

It was one thing to ride the bus to school, she thought, since it was always caught in traffic anyway. She'd spend her time people-watching as the bus inched its way closer to the school that held her prisoner to hours of daily torture.

Running was nice change of pace, she supposed, if only it weren't her last resort. It wasn't as fulfilling as swimming, of course. Dodging people on the busy streets was definitely a challenge, but when her mind slipped from the busy streets back to the water of her dreams, she suddenly was in the ocean again with the people around her becoming the schools of fish that had kept her company in her sleep. The sounds of her feet slapping the pavement as she ran became the soft sounds of them propelling her through the water, the cool morning air combing through her hair and tickling her face feeling like the saltwater she loved so much. Running definitely wasn't so bad.

Her eyes wandered from the fish-people up to the cloudy skies hanging lowly from the heavens; sea foam floating peacefully in her make-believe ocean. The sun glowed dully behind one of the clouds, its light reflecting off the wet air like the moon's beams falling from the sky on a hazy summer's night.

Rainy days were her favorite, the smell of the sea swirling in the clouds and the salt crisp in the stormy air, the dark sky and the sun disguised as the moon -- she loved all of it. It was easy to get lost in a world most people would see as dreary. If she could, she would stay outside all day just to soak up how gorgeous it was to her.

She made it to school with all of two minutes to spare. Who would've guessed running instead of taking motor transportation would prove to be more effective? Suddenly in a good mood, Mahiru hugged her book bag to her chest as she contemplated what she could do with the saved bus fair money she would be collecting in the future.

"Hey Mahiru, you're here on time for once!" her friend called from the school's front gates.

Snapped from her happy place, Mahiru blinked as she realized just how weird it was going to be going into class, on time, homework done, school uniform clean, panic ceased. She grinned a little to herself when she thought about the look on their home room teacher's face when she made it in with everyone else. No standing out in the hall for her today!

"Mahiru," her brown haired friend said as she jabbed her index finger into Mahiru's shoulder to gain her attention. "Do you know that person?" she asked, pointing to the mechanic shop down the street. Her voice was low and thick with suspicion.

Mahiru, once again pulled from her happy make-teachers-faint-from-the-shock-of-her-being-on-time place, peered over her shoulder where her friend pointed discretely.

Her eyes widened at the young mechanic waved from just outside the shop's door.

_Akira…?_

Her friend's nervous giggle made her panic. "He's totally waving at you, Mahiru!"

Mahiru gulped in as much air as she could and hauled her friend in through the doors of the school. "Nope-I-have-no-idea-who-that-is-come-on-let's-go-we're-going-to-be-late-for-class!"

"Okay, okay!" her friend gripped. "Hands off the merchandise, girl. No manhandling me, I can walk on my own you know!"

Mahiru realized she had a death grip on her friend's wrist. She yelped and let go, a wave of embarrassment washing over her.

"Hey!" Junko called from their classroom's doorway. She came barreling towards them at full speed, paying no attention when she almost plowed them over. "You guys are never going to believe what I just heard!"

Their brown haired friend rolled her eyes. "We don't care if so and so super model married another super model in secret and were caught shopping for curtains for their _fabulous_ new house, Junko."

Junko stuck her tongue out. "Are you kidding? That was so last week." she waved her hand in the no-big-deal sort of way. "The news today is _so _much better than that!"

Mahiru sighed. "Alright, alright. What is it, Junko?"

"We have new exchange students!" Junko almost squealed with excitement. "Boys! _Gorgeous_ boys!" She jabbed her finger towards a bunch of giggling girls at the other end of the hall.

Mahiru's blue eyes followed the path of over excited girls to were she could only see the top of a taller boy's head full of golden blonde locks. Next to him was another boy who broke away from the crowd, his auburn hair messily spiked in every which way. His cheeks and ears were dotted with the faint indication of holes -- holes from odd piercing.

With a pang in her stomach, she realized Akira had somehow beat her into the school, changed into _their_ uniform, and somehow managed to gain a rock star status all in under two minutes.

Her head snapped back to were Nozomu stood still swarmed with dozens of girls.

_Oh… my… god… _she thought. _No. _No, this wasn't happening. She was just being paranoid. The demonic members of the Lunar Race surely weren't stalking her. _Nu-uh. They're just some boys that happen to look exactly like Nozomu and Akira. No big deal._

But then, much to her dismay, Nozomu's sapphire blue eyes looked up and over the crowd of his recently obtained fan girls and locked with Mahiru's london blues. He smiled his make-girls-cry-with-glee smile when he saw just how freaked out she was.

_They really are all around! _she panicked.

Dropping her head, she darted for her classroom just as the first bell rang.

The school day came and went in a blur. She was pretty sure there was some learning involved, but her brain had gone into recovery mode after seeing Akira and Nozomu turn the female majority of the student body turn to globs of mush at their feet. She still hadn't really come-to when she had packed up and started to head home.

During her entire walk home, her eyes darted around suspiciously as she searched for more members of the Lunar Race. She was sure she spotted Misoka on the roof of an abandoned shopping building while Junko and company discussed what might've been their Japanese Lit. homework or maybe the newest edition of the fashion magazine or maybe even the weather, she really wasn't sure -- the sharp stare of Misoka's eyes gazing down at her from the rooftops made her mind go all fuzzy like when she first met him.

When he was sure she saw him, he broke his stare to look casually over his shoulder like standing on rooftops was an every day no-big-deal sort of thing. Mahiru thought with a small grunt. _Fine, two can play at this game._

He's ignoring me…

She turned her gaze down to her shoes where she figured would be the least likely place she'd see another demonic face. She tried to tune her thoughts back to the rambling of her friends as they continued their long walk home.

"Omigod, look!" one of them giggled, pointing to a corner store window.

Mahiru looked up without thinking about it and instantly felt a pang of regret.

There, standing behind a large glass window dressed in top of the line fashion model clothes and darkly tinted sunglasses, was Nozomu. He casually looked up from a copy of Mecna Nist: Machine Civilization magazine and cracked a smile. Mahiru could feel beads of sweat forming on her brow as he waved at the giggling girls around her. She tore her eyes away before her heart could start pounding out of her chest. She still wasn't sure what to think of the flamboyant vampire who had kissed her cheek so nonchalantly the night before.

The panic attack ceased as she got a stabbing feeling in the back of her mind, the kind of feeling that tells you when someone is glaring daggers at you. Her eyes locked with a dark pair of glaring brown eyes hiding in the shadows of a nearby ally.

_Mitsuru…_

If looks could kill, Mahiru would be dead and gone from the angry glaring Mitsuru was shooting her way. He looked a little beaten and bruised, shallow scratches on his cheeks and the shadow of a bruise on his forehead. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest as if he were fighting to hold his human shape. His furious eyes never blinked or strayed from where Mahiru stood, rooted to the ground, staring back at him.

_He's not coming after me, _Mahiru noted as she finally got some of her senses back. _I guess the others are making sure he doesn't try to kill me again, if all those bruises and abrasions are any indication…_

"Hey, are you okay?" Junko asked, breaking the blondie from her thoughts. Mahiru forced a smile to her lips as she nodded.

That night, as Mahiru sat at her desk and tried to focus on her Algebra homework, the tip-tip-tap-tap of her bedroom window's glass being assaulted with tiny pebbles pulled her thoughts away from numbers to the panicky fear of a certain brown eyed demon boy trying to force his way into her home to finish the job of sending her to an early grave.

Wearily, she inched closer to the window and peeked through the shut blinds.

"There you are, girlie!" Nozomu laughed. He was sitting on the rooftop just below her window like it was a perfectly natural thing to do. In his hand was a bunch of tiny pebbles he'd scooped up from her aunt's garden in the front yard -- he had been flicking them one by one against the glass to gain her attention in what he hoped would be melodramatic gesture.

"W-what're you doing?" Mahiru asked as she drew the blinds up and slid the window open.

Nozomu dropped the remaining pebbles over roof's edge, feeling a little dorkish and rubbing the back of his head. "Sorry sorry, I'm a hopeless romantic a heart. I don't think the whole throwing-pebbles-at-girl's-windows-is-romantic thing works all too well here in Japan…" he admitted with slight embarrassment.

"That's… okay," Mahiru finally managed to mumble, she too feeling a small twinge of awkward embarrassment. She pulled her chair over from her desk sat so she could lean out the open window. The air smelled like rain, even if none had fallen yet.

"Smells good, doesn't it?"

She fidgeted in her chair a little. "You like the rain too, Nozomu?"

He nodded once, looking up at the sky. "It makes it easier to be out during the day, I guess. You know, the sun doesn't try to kill me then at least. But it's calming too; it smells nice."

"Yeah, it does," Mahiru agreed. She stared off into the dark night's sky for a while before Nozomu brought her back from zombie land for the thousandth time of the day.

"Are you still afraid of us, Mahiru?" His voice was soft but twinged with the slightest hint of worry. "Of Mitsuru…?"

Mahiru stared at the blonde teen in front of her. At that very minute, he looked more like a movie star, bathed in the foggy night's moonlight. There was no part of him suggested he was a blood thirsty monster she saw in movies or read in horror stories. He was a boy, just like any other. Well… prettier than most, but still just another boy.

Akira, she wasn't afraid of. No, he was too much of a puppy, even in human form. When he smiled, she wanted to smile. Sure, he was a bit of an oddball, but his sweet personality shined through even in his weirdest of moments she'd witnessed with him.

Misoka was… well, strange. She felt like he was judging her, but not in a life-or-death sort of way that Mitsuru had been. He was mysterious, but she felt safe around him. He might not throw himself at her to make her feel comfortable like Nozomu and Akira would, but he wouldn't go out of his way to make her uncomfortable. There was something timeless about him. But nothing scary.

"I…" Mahiru finally answered. "I'm not afraid of _you_, Nozomu… or Akira or Misoka. I don't know… There's a mysterious darkness in you all that I don't find scary at all." _I actually feel safer with you guys than I do with most humans…_ she thought, but omitted from her confession at the risk of sounding too cheesy. "But Mitsuru I don't know about."

Nozomu nodded, getting the gist of what she was worrying about. "I don't think he's as gung-ho about killing you as before," he said, sitting back on the roof so one hand was supporting him from behind so the other was free to rest on his knee. "It's probably more a matter of his pride and stubbornness now." He paused, breaking his gaze into her eyes to look down at the street below. "Just so you know… no matter what, he'll always be against your help."

Mahiru felt her spine go rigid. "But why?" She asked, trying hard to keep her voice from sounding like a whining child's.

Nozomu smirked and turned his head to look at her after a second. "You're interested in him?" his voice wasn't easy to read -- it wasn't mean or rude or even sarcastic, but it did have a twinge of something she couldn't put her finger on.

Immediately, Mahiru regretted even bothering to ask about Mitsuru. _Of course I'm not interested in him!_ She threw her hands up and tried to explain to Nozomu that it defiantly was _not _anything like that. _I mean, really! He tried to KILL me!_

Nozomu laughed lightly under his breath while Mahiru finished panicking. He was smiling again, though his voice wasn't the cheerful tone it had been before.

"I grew up knowing we were different," he told Mahiru. "But Mitsuru was raised by _humans_ -- humans who had no idea that our people even existed." He shifted his weight so he could sit face-to-face with her. "Somewhere along the way, we all discovered what it was and what it's not to be of the Moon," he explained.

Mahiru leaned forward, lacing her fingers together and resting her chin on them as she listened to Nozomu's soft voice shine some light onto the mystery that was Mitsuru.

"To be quite honest, we don't know much about Mitsuru," he said, once again looking up at the hazy sky. "You've seen for yourself how distant he can be. What we do know is that he must've gone through quite a bit and lost quite a lot to be the way he is." He didn't feel he needed to scare her with the horror stories of all the foster homes, the juvenile correction centers, the cruelty of humans they managed to dig up that Mitsuru had went through before they hand found him.

He peeked at her through the corner of his eyes, studying her worried face. There was something about a girl who would show concern for a boy--a monster in her eyes--who tried to kill her. She was something special, not in just a Princess of the Moon sort of way.

He smiled a little to himself before continuing.

"As far as his anger goes, it's not really directed towards you, or other humans really. He hates his own race just as much." He grinned, trying to hide the aching pang he felt for having to admit that to such a sweet girl. "And us, we're his friends, right? But deep down, I doubt he trusts us any more than he trusts you."

"But…" Mahiru interrupted, "If there was a way to lower the walls around him, things could be different, right?"

Nozomu smiled, sensing a plan forming from her words.

* * *

End of chapter four. It has been exactly one year since I last updated -- I'm sorry! There is a pile reasons why, but writer's block has to be at the top of it. Forgetting my pass to this account and to the email for the account might've had something to do with it too.

This is for **Winged Shadow, mooonsnite, **and especially my little **Minion.**

My thanks to **Artemis, Elen-Di, hahamoondancecow, Emilinia-sama, **and **QuickStar **for reviewing! You guys are way too awesome.

As for the worried comments about possible copyrighting of this work; as I've said in the disclaimer in chapter one, I do not own nor do I claim the original story. I do use a lot of direct quotes from the manga, but I also try to mix in as much of my own personal work as possible whenever I can. Since I'm not publishing this story as my own, or claiming anything but my own words mixed into the originals--_and _since this is posted on a fan fiction website, I highly doubt anyone with the authority to sue me for this will bother.  
**  
But, if by chance someone who does have claim on it has found this and wants it to be removed, all you have to do is ask. I'm happy to oblige.**

Now, with that semi-ramble over, I want to thank anyone who is reading this -- ghost readers or way awesome reviewers who are thinking about letting me know you're still out there (which I would be very grateful for!) thanks for sticking with me for so long. I'm going to try and keep in the flow of writing more often -- and I AM easily bribed and motivated with reviews -- so bear with me a little? I'll try to keep you guys provided with more chapters that aren't spread out with a year between them.

Also, please forgive the typos and mistakes. I tried to catch them all, but it's hard to do on my own and my beta hasn't emailed me back yet, so I'm going to post this anyway. I'll fix any error I might've missed when I notice it.

-RH


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